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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25342756">Commonality</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rakath/pseuds/Rakath'>Rakath</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Degrassi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Season/Series 13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 06:14:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,176</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25342756</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rakath/pseuds/Rakath</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Maya finding out about Adam.</p><p>POV - Mike Dallas</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Commonality</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>This year sucked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I couldn’t even be mad Ice Hounds didn’t make the playoffs, this year sucked that much. We didn’t make the playoffs because our best player died, and there wasn’t much way to come back from that. And I wasn’t mad at our team, because it was my fault he died.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I didn’t see he was in trouble. It was on me. I was a bad Captain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Which is why when Coach cuts me next fall, I know I deserved it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If that was it, if that was all that happened, that’d be the shittiest year of my life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Adam… Adam did something stupid, over a girl, and he was gone too. He was a nice kid, never quite got the whole trans thing, but he worked hard. Wanted to be more than he was, and wouldn’t put up with my crap.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And on a personal level, the cutest girl at school won’t talk to me. Meeting who knows what sorta guy in Paris, and my kid was away all summer. So I couldn’t at least pretend to be a good dad for a while, make it feel like I didn’t suck so much.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I came up from my pity party when I heard a light rapping on the door to Casa Torres’s basement. She was cute, not sexy like her older sister. Not scary like her either. Couldn’t quite ever get what Rook saw in her, he could have had any girl in school. Hotter ones, slutty ones, but he liked this band nerd who stuffed her training bra.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I opened the door, “What are you doing here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was in the neighborhood, wanted to see if Adam was around.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I blinked. I wanted to yell at her. This was a bad time for a joke like that. If it was Drew that answered the door I don’t even want to think about how that’d go. Which- it didn’t make any sense. Maya was a freak, she blamed Cam for his own death which- I could almost see. She got wasted in my bedroom to make out with some guy I’ve never seen before. Video tape it. Share it with the whole school.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But… she wasn’t cruel, Rook had better taste than that. So- this wasn’t a joke. I tried to think of who, if anyone, could have told Maya about Adam. What had happened, how he…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>How he died.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But the person most likely to tell her was Imogen, they were in a band together. And Imogen had been running interference with Drew since the funeral. Trying her best to keep him occupied, distracted enough to not think. I figured she did it for herself. If she wasn’t so weird she’d be so hot. But now isn’t the time for that, I had a little girl, looking for her friend.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And I got to tell her. Lucky me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her expression changed sometime while I was thinking, she might not have been a hottie but I forgot how quick she was. The boys spent weeks laughing at Owen after she pelted him with one of those cutlets. Guess she saw the truth on my face. I thought I wasn’t so easy to read. It wasn’t anguish. I know what that pain looks like, on someone. On everyone, after Cam…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her face said terror. Her breathing shifted, she stumbled and tripped over the patio furniture. I’d made it over to her side in a few seconds. Wrapping her up in my arms, I had to. Adam would never forgive me if I let anyone, let alone his friend, freak out without trying to help. So I held her. She wasn’t crying, she was mumbling to herself. I couldn’t really hear her. Not at first.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s going to be okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yeah, I know. It was lame. Shut up, I’m bad with this stuff.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her breathing evened out, a few moments later of this terrifying stillness from this girl. She was creepy, but I couldn’t blame her, “I should have been here, maybe…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do what? He died in a car accident, it isn’t the same.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She went back to being still. I pulled away to look at her, statues were livelier than she was right now. She slowly looked up at me. “I don’t know, something, more.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I slid back to sit down, instead of kneeling over her. If she controted into one of those Japanese movie monsters, Adam loved those films, that’d be less creepy than the way she looked now. “You can’t blame yourself, if you do I have to blame myself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shifted to lean against the bench outside the Torres house, looking at me. That was creepier, I could see whatever question she had form before she said it, “What happened?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He screwed things up with Becky, I told him to get over it. Imogen was into him, but he loved Becky. He drove off, he was texting… probably trying to talk to her and…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maya looked down, “Maybe if I was here I could have done something.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This isn’t about you.” Words were a bit sharper than I meant them. But I figure the only reason she didn’t jump from me raising my voice was that required movement. And it seemed like Maya was sitting in a transparent block of cement right now. That didn’t make sense, she barely knew Adam. They were only bandmates, their siblings hated each other.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Why was Maya so messed up? Like- sure, everyone loved Adam. But this was a bit much. Why did she think it was about her? I watched her not move, still creepy if you’re lost on the score, “How much of this is about Adam? And how much of it is about-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her eyes met mine immediately, terror back in them. That answered that, not saying Rook’s name now. When I didn’t say it, she relaxed, but still looked like a terrified gerbil or something.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You couldn’t save either of them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...I could have tried.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I shifted to sit next to her, putting an arm around her in a brotherly non-come-on way. Which I’m not great at, but Maya wasn’t freaking out as much. So- I’ll take that win, even if I didn’t earn it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>I wanted to tell her it was wrong, to feel like she could have done more. But she’s had to deal with a lot. Mike Dallas lying to her didn’t need to be added to the list. Hell, I didn’t need to lie to myself right now. Act like I hadn’t spent most nights playing through if I could have told Adam something else, not push him toward Imogen, stopped him when he took the truck?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So I said the only truth I could, that wouldn’t hurt more. “That’s a messed up view of things.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn’t answer right away, a part of me prayed she fell asleep somehow. Not likely, but it would be less painful than anything else. Instead, one syllable that just confirmed what I already knew. About both of us.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>As to not clutter an already erratic piece of writing, Maya didn't find out from anyone else because she'd stayed off social media when she got home from Paris. But mostly because I wanted someone to deal with telling her, in person. And have her react in a proper Maya Matlin fashion.</p><p>...Badly.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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